EFL- Iain Duncan Smith pulls no punches in saying what he thinks is wrong with Britain today. The head of David Cameron's social justice policy unit makes an impassioned case that at the root of nearly all crime and anti-social behaviour is the decline of marriage and the rise of cohabiting couples, which all too readily break down into single mothers and "guesting" fathers.The former Conservative leader is speaking ahead of the launch of his interim report, "Breakdown Britain", which has come to some uncomfortable conclusions for the new-look Tory party. What Mr Cameron will make of them at a special press conference tomorrow remains to be seen.
But on the face of it there does appear to be a gulf, in tone at least, between the Cameron doctrine of optimism and tolerance and the Duncan Smith report, which concludes that Britain is in the grip of a social collapse brought about by the decline in traditional values. The report paints a picture of a society where rising levels of family breakdown, addiction, welfare dependency, educational failure and personal debt are combining to form a "vicious spiral pulling down millions of the most vulnerable people in the country".